TECH YARD

iPhone Explorer – Windows Explorer Like Interface To Drag and Drop Files To and From iPhone and iPod Touch

Avinash — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:02:03 +0000

iPhone is all around and there are many things you can do with it, make calls, browse the internet, share files, stay in touch on social networks, maps, camera etc., but to copy files to and from iPhone is not easy there is no easy way to do it with iTunes.

There are quite a few iTunes alternatives like iFun Box, Copy Trans, iPhone Backup Extractor and Disk Aid for accessing the folder structure of iPhone and iPod Touch for accessing files and recovering them aswell.

But some app don’t work with jail broken iPhone, Here’s iPhone Explorer which is a iPhone browser for Mac and Windows and works on all iphone ( including jail broken phones ).It supports all generations of iPhone and iPod Touch.It can be used for putting iPhone as a flash drive / pen drive or put your iPhone into disk mode.Users can create, delete and rename files and folders on your iPhone or iPod Touch easily.

image source : iphone-explorer.com

iPhone Explorer Features :

Drag-and-drop interface
Create, delete and rename files and folders on your iPhone or iPod Touch
Use your iPhone as a flash drive / pen drive or put your iPhone into disk mode
Recover your address book, SMS, e-mails etc., on jailbroken iPhones.
Works with all iPhones and iPod Touches including the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G
Supports Windows and Mac OS.
Support for iTunes 8 and 9.

Requires OSX 10.5 or 10.6 and iTunes 8 or 9.

How To Track Bandwidth Usage On Android Phone

Avinash — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:00:50 +0000

With 3G networks available browsing the internet on the move using multimedia phones is very easy, but unfortunately operators don’t provide unlimited browsing plan on 3G networks and keep a monthly cap on the usage and there is no easy way of knowing how much bandwidth was used as there is no log of it on the phone.

NetCounter is a network traffic counter for the Android platform that can display your network traffic consumption.the bandwidth counter works on EDGE/3G and Wi-Fi networks.In case you exceed your monthly limit the app alerts in case you cross your monthly limit.

In case you are using a desktop try BitMeter II – Desktop Bandwidth Meter

Dynamic counters for different networks can be added, modified and removed for example “Total”, “Last 30 days”, “Last 7 days”, etc.,All the data is stored on your phone itself and the data can be exported/import to/from the SD card in CSV format.The application also restarts automatically incase you restart your phone.

Download NetCounter for Android

Block Websites From Being Shown In History Without using Private Browsing Mode In Firefox

Avinash — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:30:18 +0000

Most modern day web browsers have a private browsing features that don’t store any browsing information, but to block a site that you suddenly came across and that you don’t want it to show up in the history, then HistoryBlock is one handy plugin to always have.

How To Pack Your Laptop In a Hoody In 8 Easy Steps

Avinash — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:49:25 +0000

Hoodies can also be used something else and not wearing say Conceptual Devices, who show how a hoodie can be used for carrying your laptop by folding it in a specific manner with your laptop in it.You can also carry your laptop packed inside the hoodie easily in 8 easy steps.

Here’s a easy to understand YouTube Video showing how to do it

If you are a college going student you can defiantly use this as an alternative rather than spending money on your laptop carry bag.

How To Implement Social Media Icons Using Pure CSS

Avinash — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:51:44 +0000

Everyone uses social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Orkut etc., to connect with friends and also to promote information, but mostly designers use images (png , jpg) to display the icons on webpages but if you want to save on the page load time that images take as images could take time to load, you can try implementing the social media icons using CSS.

Also Check out -

I mean creating the icons using CSS, Nicolas Gallagher created icons for 10 social media icons ( Facebook, Twitter, RSS, Flickr, Delicious, LinkedIn, Google, Orkut, Technorati and Netvibes ) in Pure CSS using CSS2.1 and CSS3.

Images made out of CSS, can also be cached and also minified there by improving page load time.As the icons are generated from CSS these could be rendered differently on different browsers.

If you want to use the CSS implementation of the icons and worry about the rendering in different browsers, you can also use code using conditional CSS based on your testing.

Sample HTML Code :


   Facebook
   Share on Twitter

Check out the DEMO and also check out the complete CSS on the demo page as well.

How To Try The Development Versions Of Wordpress Before The Official Stable Release – WP Beta Testing

Avinash — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:06:57 +0000

Worpdress is the most popular blogging and major release often have a lot of new features and everyone wants to have a go at the development versions ( bleeding edge versions ) before they get to the release date of the stable versions.Here’s how you can do that easily.

Installing the development versions is not easy so install WordPress Beta Tester plugin for upgrading the stable version to the latest Beta version or Release Candidate version of Wordpress from the WP Dashboard itself.By default once enabled it switches your blog onto the point release nightlies.There is also an option to switch to the bleeding edge of development.

Upload the plugin to wp-content/wp-plugins folder and Activate the plugin, next to configure the plugin navigate to Tools – > Beta Testing update to the latest Beta Release.

Note – You can try this plugin on your localhost and test a development version easily using this plugin.Don’t try this on a regular blog on your webserver as you could corrupt / loose data.Do backup you data before trying this out.

Download Wordpress Beta Tester

How Create ScreenCasts For Creating a DEMO Videos By Recording Screen Activity

Avinash — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:28:29 +0000

Recording screen activity as a short video can be useful for a demo or for uploading the video to online video sharing sites online screen recording tools like Screen Castle,BBFlashBack Express require internet connectivity, but in case you are not connected to internet or don’t have a commercial tool like SnagIt for screen recording, then you can try out the Screen to Video Recorder for easy and simple screen recording.

oomfo – Animated Charts and Graphs With Support For Slicing, Rotation and with 2D/3D Conversion.

Avinash — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:39:06 +0000

If you are preparing your slides for a office meeting or a seminar MS Power Point is the preferred application and with latest versions of MS Office supporting 3rd party addons like AuthorStream and GlobeFX Swiff Point Player.If its something to do with Finance or that has lots of charts and graphs to show then try oomfo addon the next time.

oomfo is Microsoft Powerpoint Addon that uses adds maps from FusionMaps,that lets viewers visualize data in presentations in charts and graphs with interactivity and animation.

Also Read :

Oomfo Features :

FusionMaps Visuals Effects
Supports copy-pasting of data from spreadsheet and exporting of charts
Animated charts and graphs.
Slicing, rotation and easy 2D/3D conversion

Incase you plan to share a (*.ppt) file with your friends then click the “Export Charts” button in the oomfo menu or on the office ribbon which will generate folder containing all the chart SWF files in the same location as your PPT file.Send both the PPT and the folder to your friend, and he will see the charts exactly the way you made them.The best way to send both the folder of swf ( flash files) and the *.ppt is to zip them to maintain the folder structure.

Oomfo requires Adobe Flash Player 8 (or above) to view the charts and supports supports Microsoft® Office® 2003, 2007 and 2010.

Moderate Comments On Your Blog From Desktop – Wordpress Desktop Comment Moderation Tool – Wordpress Comments Notifier

Avinash — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:17:03 +0000

Desktop blogging tools like Windows Live Writer makes blogging easier but comment moderation requires user’s to login to their Wordpress Dashboard for approving comments.There are adobe air applications like for moderating comments made on your blogs, but this requires Adobe Air RunTime installed on the machine.

If you are looking for a desktop alternative for Windows/Unix (Linux) here’s wp-comments-notifier written in QT/C++ that alerts you when new comments are posted on your WordPress blog.Admin’s can manage/reply/edit your comments directly from your desktop.

The application shows the total comment count, pending comment count and the spam comments count.Clicking on the comments give further options to approve/disapprove, reply, edit, mark as spam or delete the comment.The tray icon is A popup notifier is also available for new comments.

You can set the time interval between new comment checks from the wp-comments-notifier configuration window.If your receive lot of comments you can set it to a smaller number.To manually check for new comments click on the refresh button.

Multiple blog support could be even useful for users with multiple blogs, nevertheless a good beginning for a complete desktop admin.

If you are a Unix /Linux user you can also build it from the source which requires Qt 4.2 or higher.

Source : BlogsDNA

Add Extra Submit Button On Top Of Wordpress Admin Pages

Avinash — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:10:49 +0000

Plugins for any application be it a browser or blogging platform like wordpress are meant for extending the default features or make available new functions and features.If you use wordpress on a day to day basis there is one thing that’s a bit irritating that is the Submit button on pages in the Wordpress Admin which is only available at the bottom of the page which takes extra scrolling just to press the “Submit” button.

Here’s Add Submit Button On Top a plugin which inserts a “Submit Button” on the top of the pages like Settings Menu pages, User Edit Page, Appearance Editor Page, and the Plugin Editor page in the wordpress admin panel.

This is one among many such features that should be available as default in Wordpress.Lets hope the Wordpress developers include this in their next release.

How To Lock KeyBoard and Mouse Buttons, and Unlock Using Password

Avinash — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:12:11 +0000

to If you are very concerned about the data on your workstation while your away for a while, you can definitely just lock it but the user can can tryout passwords or just reset the system and try an alternate method.Or incase you are working from home and don’t want children at home to accidentally press “Del”, Close the Windows etc., Few days back I’ve shared Block Input – that let users lock the input devices (keyboard and mouse) for a limited time, but incase you don’t return to your workstation within that time the system is open to compromise.

Kid Key Lock is a freeware application and a portable application as well that lets users lock input devices using a passwords, selective locking of input devices is also possible that enables users to lock/disable specific keyboard keys and mouse buttons.

When Kid-Key-Lock sits in the windows tray and click on the tray icon gives a pop-up menu from where all program functions, including the setup dialog box are accessible.

What can be locked using Kid Key Lock :

Mouse Lock options :

Disable Left mouse button
Disable Middle mouse button
Disable Right mouse button
Disable Double click
Disable Mouse wheel

Keyboard lock options :

Disable Standard character keys (letters, numbers, signs, etc)
Disable Additional keys (Navigation keys, function keys, ins/del, home/end, etc)
Disable Windows system shortcuts(e.g. alt-tab, win-key, etc)

Password to enable/disable lock or to quit kid key lock can be set in the options menu.In case you lock all the keyboard buttons and mouse just enter either of the keys to to unlock keyboard or to exit the application.A no install version ie ., a portable version is also available in a zip format.Just extract the bin folder from the zip and double click kidkeylock.exe to start the application.

Kid Key Lock is compatible with Windows OS and also can lock laptop keyboards and track pads/touchpads.

Also Check out the Computer Hardware Reference Chart for identifying various ports available on modern day computers.

How To BackUp Data To External Drives, FTP and Restore Data from Backups

Avinash — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:23:33 +0000

Data is the important thing I my view not even the hardware,that requires more maintencene and periodic backup.If you work on a project or keep downloading many files and if it gets difficult to keep track of the file changes then its even difficult to backup them because you would track of the new and changed files on your system.

Incase you plan to start backing up data and want a way to automate and also be very intuitive, then you can try BackUp Maker, a free data backup solution.It offers a wide range of backup storage devices, backup types and encryption techniques for the archive data.

BackUp Maker Features :

Supports Zipped backups – PKZip and also with encrypted and password protection.
Multiple Backup Target Storages – CD/DVD, FTP, External Drives – USB, Network Drives, and also Spanned backups.
Support to Full, Partial, Backup of Changed files, Combined execution, Backup generations and Archive bit backup.
Automatic Backup
Backup verification

Backup’s can be zipped using PKZip that supports archives larger than 4 GB and then backups can also be password protected with strong AES 256-Bit encryption.Data can also be backed onto different storage devices like USB Drives, Network Drives, FTP Uploads with resume able uploads.If you intend to backups your data on to CD/DVD the backup can also be split into several files of any user defined size.

BackUp Maker also supports different backup types :

Full Backup – Backs up all the data ie., file and folders
Partial Backup – Backup of files changed since last partial or full backup
Backup of changed files - Backup of files changed in selectable interval

It can also auto backup data on plugging in a USB Drive or on Windows Shutdown/Log Off or at regular time intervals.

Selective backup is also possible with only the user selected file types are selected and the backup can also be verified for completeness and correctness of the data.

Restoration using the backup is also possible using the same application,that makes it even easier.

BackupMaker is free for private use and is compatible with all Windows OS and the download is only 4 MB.

How To Show A Leaving Page To Your Visitors On Clicking A External Link In Your Blog Post

Avinash — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:50:07 +0000

Every blogger wants their users to subscribe to the blogs RSS Feeds or signup for the E mail Updates, but mostly after reading a post a reader tends to leave the external site pointing from the blog post. Some popular websites open up such links in new pages giving some warning message like you are leaving the blog and would be redirected to the external site in a few seconds.

Also Read :

If you are looking to have such a feature in your wordpress powered blog, here’s a plugin called WP Js External Link Info that can get this done with minimal hassle that can redirect all external links in posts, comments and author links to a redirection page.Users can also use the default redirection page or create a new redirection page with more modifications and options for the users.

On activation this plugin gives users 2 options under the plugins options page :

To mention the path to the user created Redirect File.
To enable/disable external links to open up in new browser window.

If the time for the redirection can be altered from the plugins options it could even more easier and would give users time to subscribe to RSS or for email updates or twitter updates etc., nevertheless a very good plugins.

Also check out [ RB Internal Links ] a wordpress plugin that makes it easy for interlinking between posts.

If you plan to try out this plugin, Do share if this has helped improve your RSS Subscribers or visitors time on site.

http://www.techyard.net/link-counter-count-the-number-of-internal-and-external-links/

Check Your Wireless Network Vulnerabilities Online

Avinash — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:30:43 +0000

Wireless Networks have become common and also penetrated home users but the security of such networks is also vital.You can check your wired or wireless networks online at Pure Networks Security Scan, a FREE tool that finds potential wireless network security and Internet security vulnerabilities across your entire network.

Also Read :

This tool need to be run on Internet Explorer 6 or higher only and an Active Script is installed for the scan to analyze your network and Networks Security Scan does not collect or transmit any personally identifiable information during the scan.

The tool checks for vulnerabilities on your Network Devices, Your Computer, Router and Network, Wireless Security and Internet Security and ranks your security into Poor/Fair/Good and give you suggestions.

In the scan results you can also drill down into the exact problems detected by the tool and check out the suggestions in the details.

How To Remove Ads, Run Multiple Instances Of Yahoo Messenger and Customize Yahoo Messenger Easily Using AD Destroy

Avinash — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:06:59 +0000

Yahoo Messenger has a lot of features and some features not liked by many and one such things is the ads in the messenger window, chat window, and some other functions that are not possible with Yahoo Messenger by default like unable to multiple instances of the messenger.

Also Read how users can block ads in browsers :

AD Destroy is a portable app that makes it easy to enable and disable features like removing ads in Yahoo messenger, running multiple instances of Yahoo Messenger etc., in Y! Messenger that are not possible from the application preferences.

AD Destroy Features :

Remove Advertisements
Enable Polygamy ie., run multiple versions of Yahoo Messenger
Enable Smiley Search
Disable Buzz! Sound
Disable Yupdater
Disable smiley’s
Disable Audibles
Remove Plugins area/Y!Mobile/Y!insider
Disable Chat Abuse Link
Toggle Nicknames/Usernames
Enable Messenger Debug Options
Disable Yahoo! Messenger at Startup

How To Use :

Click on “Browse” and select the yahoo messenger exe folder and then select the option that you want to enable-disable in the messenger and click “Patch”.

This app is compatible with the following versions of Yahoo Messenger : 10.0.0.525, 10.0.0.542, 10.0.0.1102 and is compatible with both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows OS. [ Via – WebTrickz ]

Also check out 9 Multi Protocol IM Clients To Keep You Connected From Any Platform.

Lock Windows OS By Disabling Input Devices

Avinash — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:30:39 +0000

Locking your System while your away from it is also the best option but using the most common ways of doing it could also make it easy for breaking the system as the ways overcome the Lock would be known.Most commonly used method of locking a PC is the Windows Lock ( Win+L ) which is secure but gives anyone a chance to tryout a password and If you are specific the you don’t want anyone to try or even see anything nor even let them execute any command or keystroke then you can use Block Input which is a portable software program that can block all input devices from sending signals to the computer system to a time frame that you can set.

Also Read :

Just press the hotkey (Ctrl-Q) default to Lock the PC.Users can also change the hotkey from the settings and the default time frame of the lock down which can be accessed by right clicking on the application icon in the system tray.On locking the PC a countdown with the number of seconds remaining before the input signals go active is shown beside the mouse pointer.

Via – DonationCoder

How To Auto Download From Multiple File Hosting Sites

Avinash — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:10:18 +0000

File Hosting sites useful in sharing huge files using online apps like InterUpload – Upload files to multiple file hosting sites, and also do remote upload of files to file hosting sites.

Generally huge files are split into number of files on the file hosting servers, and such services also impose restrictions like no simultaneous download to the same IP Address etc., in such scenarios if the uploads are available as mirrors on alternate file hosting servers you can download the files from multiple file hosting using Mipony.

Mipony is free tool to download files from free hosting pages like Rapidshare and Megaupload.It can also bypasses filling captchas, allows to queue up file(s) to download from various servers at a time.It can also join the downloaded split files using (HJSplit).It can also monitor your clipboard for download links from file hosting sites and start downloads using Mipony.It has an embedded browser from where the download links are detected.It can also check if the files are available for download on servers or have the links expired or deleted.

It also has an embedded browser from where the download links are auto detected and supports over 30 file hosting servers.Downloads can also be started directly from Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Download Mipony

How To Fix Stuck Pixels on iPhone

Avinash — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:27:06 +0000

LCD screens tend to suffers at times from the problem of stuck pixels.Today’s display screens are mostly Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). In the past I’ve listed online and desktop tools for identifying stuck pixels on your monitors and how you can fix the stuck pixels using the tools.

Read Previous Posts about :

[ How To Check Your LCD Monitor For Dead or Defective Pixels – InjuredPixels ]

[ How To Fix Dead / Stuck Pixels On LCD Monitors ]

With mobile phone and smart phone also increasing using full screen touch display’s which also LCD Screen’s.iPhone is one such device which also has a LCD Screen and which also can have stuck pixels.In case you have stuck pixels on your iPhone you can fix that online using Knox Pixel Fix for iPhone.

The app uses javascript to rotate colors by actual hex color codes at a high frequency to excite pixels and hopefully release their stuck state and the repair window is sized for the iPhone.

Note : Do not over-run to fix the stuck because this, in a rare case, could lead to frozen pixels from over stressing.

Activate Hidden Features In Mac OS Using TinkerTool

Avinash — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:00:28 +0000

Almost every OS has a set of features and preferences that are by hidden by default.TinkerTool enables hidden preferences in Mac OS and does this without the need of requiring administrative privileges.

The different preferences enabled using TinkerTool is based on the Mac OS version is run on.TinkerTool does not make available any new features.Its gives users an extended interface to your personal preference settings and all settings are restricted to the user accounts that launch TinkerTool.

All preference settings changed can be reset to the OS defaults, or to the state that existed before using the tool.It also

Check here for the full list of preferences available on various versions of the Mac OS.

Download TinkerTool for Mac OS x.

How To Remotely Power On PC By Sending Magic Packets To NIC To WakeUp System’s On LAN

Avinash — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:55:54 +0000

If you manage a LAN ( Local Area Network ) sometime its required to install software on remote systems or transfer files across LAN [ Share files across LAN easily using CC File Transfer ].What if the systems on the LAN is switched off, its not a feasible option to manually switch on each system on the LAN, rather as a network administrator you can Power On any system on a LAN using Wake On Lan, by sending a magic packet over to the system’s NIC unique address.

For waking system’s remote the remote needs to have Wakeup On LAN enabled in the BIOS, and the user / administrator needs to also know the MAC address [ How To Change MAC Address Of Network Interface Card (NIC) ] and the IP address assigned to the system.The application has a very easy interface with just 2 fields and a button.

Enter the MAC address of the PC and the IP Address and Click “Wake On PC” Button, that’s it.If all the numbers are correct the remote system should auto power on.

The number of retry packets and time gap between retry packets can be changed from the settings which can be accessed from File Settings.Wake On LAN can also monitor the remote machine and intimate the user when the machine boots up.

[ Also Read How To Power On PC From StandBy Mode and How To Shutdown PC Remotely ]

Download Wake On LAN